Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, RTÉ's director general, Ms Dee Forbes, appeared before the Oireachtas media committee and one of the key issues we discussed was funding of RTÉ and public media services in general. The RTÉ submission yesterday had a section titled "Why the TV current licence fee model is no longer fit for purpose". There is approximately €160 million brought in via the television licence but €65 million per year is lost because of evasion, amounting to over €500 million over a ten-year period, with a consequent impact on programming. In the UK the Tories are promoting the idea of abolishing the television licence altogether. It is popular because 60% of people supposedly do not want to pay for a television licence. My television licence cost me €160 but my Sky subscription costs over €1,000 per year.

Before Christmas, the chair of the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland, Mr. John Purcell, came before the committee. He stated bluntly that most of the organisation's 34 local radio stations would be one week away from closure were it not for the support of the Government and the sound and vision or emergency funding. Our local newspapers got no such funding because there is no similar mechanism for them. It is amazing that we did not lose a whole swathe of them last year. Our national newspapers have seen their advertising customers migrate en masse to Facebook.

All this time we have been told the Future of Media Commission report, which has been sitting on the Minister's desk since October, will provide all the answers to the problems besetting the media in this country. The most farcical thing is it has been leaked to be damned and supposedly proposes abolishing the television licence. That is fantastic. The report will be able to tell us what is wrong but we are not being told how we can fund a different model because the political system ultimately has to make that decision. Through the leaks from its section, we have seen the Department of Finance baulk at the idea of not having a television licence because it would have to pick up the €200 million bill.

Five years ago, a previous Oireachtas committee proposed that the Revenue Commissioners collect the television licence and a move to a household broadcasting charge. Again, the political system did not want to grapple with that hot potato and the can got kicked down the road. We got a report from the Future of Media Commission. I am shocked we have not lost local newspapers and radio stations because this system is so rigid, it cannot deal with the pressing matters before it. I ask that the Minister and the Cabinet publish the report. Judging by the length of time it has taken us to deal with the sector already, it will take us another five years to work through what is in the report.

Who will fund the sector? As a proud member of the National Union of Journalists, I do not want to see us going down the road of having something like Fox News, trashy papers or a generation led by social media news content. It would destroy the very fabric of this country and political discourse. We have seen enough hate and we must ensure we can get a properly funded media sector in this country. It will require the political system to act, the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, to publish the report and the Cabinet to act on those recommendations.